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PM7002: Colin Campbell Ross

Colin Campbell Ross (born 11 October 1892, North Fitzroy,
Melbourne) was executed by the State of Victoria, 24th April 1922, for a
crime it now admits he did not commit. On 31st Dec 1921, the naked body
of 12 year old Alma Tirtschke, of Hawthorn, was found murdered in Gun
Alley, off Little Collins St, Melbourne. Her aunt had sent her into
Melbourne to go shopping, but she failed to return home.

Ross ran a wine-bar in Eastern Arcade, Bourke Street. The
prosecution case was that Ross had lured Tirtschke into his wine-bar,
plied her with alcohol, raped and murdered her. A prisoner at the gaol
claimed that Ross had confessed the same to him — the fact that this
prisoner was a convicted perjurer was kept from the jury at trial. It
was also claimed by forensic scientists that hairs found on a blanket at
Ross' house matched those of Alma Tirthschke. However, DNA testing in
1998 proved conclusively that those claims were incorrect. Ross at all
times protested his innocence.

Ross was convicted of murder, and sentenced to death. Appeals, including an appeal to the High Court of Australia[1],
were unsuccessful. Ross was executed by hanging at Melbourne Gaol, 24th
April 1922. The authorities decided to use his hanging as an
opportunity to experiment with a four-stranded rope, instead of the
three-stranded rope they normally used. This rope failed to sever his
spinal cord, and as a result he was slowly strangled to death, in what
must have been immense pain.

In accordance with the legislation at the time (s. 315, Criminal Law Practice Act 1864),
the government refused to release Ross' body to his next of kin, or
permit a proper funeral to be held for him. He was buried within the
walls of Old Melbourne Gaol, his grave marked only by a marker showing
his initials and date of execution. Later, in 1937, that section of the
gaol was demolished, and his remains (and those of other executed
prisoners) were exhumed, and reburied at Pentridge Prison in Coburg.
After the closure of Pentridge Prison, the Victorian government sold the
land to developers, who exhumed the remains. Due to the disorderly
process of reburial, there was some difficulty in identifying the
remains of Ross, but the forensic archaeologists suceeded in doing so to
the satisfaction of the Victorian State Coroner.[2] Finally, his remains were at last released to his family, over 86 years later.

In 2007, an inquiry by the Supreme Court of Victoria, held by
Justices Bernard Teague, Phil Cummins, and John Coldrey, found that Ross
was innocent of the charges against him, and recomended that he be
pardoned.[3] The Government of Victoria accepted this recomendation, and he was pardoned by Governor deKrester on 27 May 2008.[4]

Any right-thinking person, who discovers these events, will feel
extremely angry at the heinous crime of the State of Victoria. Just a
"pardon" is insufficient — if "sorry, oops!" is enough, we should let
all murderers off that way — for that is what the Victorian Government
did, it was among the worst of murders. Most murderers do not try to
pretend that what they do is right, that what they do is justice, the
way the State of Victoria did. That is what makes it among the worst of
murderers, because most murderers do not have the boastfulness to claim
what it claimed. If it is truly sorry for its sins, it should erect a
monument (of comparable scale and prominence to the Shrine of
Remembrance) "To the memory of the victims of the heinous crimes of the
Government of Victoria" (we can be sure that Ross is not the only one).

Colin Campbell Ross is to be counted among the victims of the heinous crimes of the usurpational powers.